Book Review for The Jesus Scandals by David Brewer





The Jesus Scandals
David Instone-Brewer
Non Fiction

Back of the book:

David INstone-Brew unravels history to discover what has been lost over the centuries – what Jesus’ contemporaries really thought about him and his teaching.

Jesus scandalized both friends and enemies. Topics covered include:

·         his parentage and accusations of alcohol abuse and fraudulent miracles
·         the dubuious status of his followers – poorly educated, ex-prostitutes and the certifiably mad
·         his anti-religious teaching on temple practices, eternal torment, easy divorces and judgment in this life
·         his thoughts of suicide, shameful execution and impossible resurrection

Faithful to the biblical text, this carefully researched book can be read as a whole or as stand-alone chapters. Useful for house groups and as discussion starters.




About the author:

Revd Dr David Instone-Brewer is a Baptist Minister who was seconded to the academic world by his denomination. He is now the Senior Research Fellow in Rabbinics and the New Testament at Tyndale House in Cambridge. He has written several academic books and articles on early Judaism and the Bible, as well as regular contributions to Christianity magazine. Other interests include computer programming and lowbrow movies.







My thoughts:

From the beginning I was fascinated with this book. It is broken into three sections, Scandals in Jesus’ Life, Scandals Among Jesus’ Friends and Scandals in Jesus’ Teaching. Within each of these sections are several sub topics. Each topic takes up four or five pages and is meant to be read in short segments of time. If I remember correctly the author says he designed it to be read on your coffee break.

I enjoyed the brief readings and also the fact that you could read the book in any order that you wished. I found myself skipping around from section to section. Each story is told with personal accounts of the author’s life. He then relates it to the subject at hand. The whole thing is well researched and reference notes are included to back up each statement.

Overall it was a very interesting read. I did not happen to agree with Dr Brewer on everything but the differences of opinion caused me to think about my position on certain subjects in a very positive way.

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on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally
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